Southern Baptists should investigate churches that cover up abuse, says SBC president

February 18, 2019

8 Min Read

Southern Baptist Convention President J.D. Greear addresses the denomination's Executive Committee in Nashville, Tenn., on Feb. 18, 2019. He told the gathering that it should immediately investigate 10 churches named in a report detailing sexual abuse among clergy. RNS photo by Bob Smietana

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (RNS) — J.D. Greear, president of the Southern Baptist Convention, said the denomination’s Executive Committee should immediately investigate 10 churches named in a report by the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-News, including Second Baptist in Houston — one of the largest churches in the SBC.

If any churches were found to have covered up abuse and refused to mend their ways, Greear told a gathering of Southern Baptist leaders on Monday (Feb. 18), then the convention should consider removing them from the denomination, a process known as “disfellowshipping.”

“We must take bold and decisive steps to send an unequivocal message: Churches that have a wanton disregard for sexual abuse and for caring for the survivors are not in good fellowship with this convention,” Greear said.

Greear made his remarks at a regularly scheduled meeting of SBC’s Executive Committee at its offices in Nashville, a week after the two Texas newspapers published the results of a major investigation of abuse in the nation’s largest Protestant denomination. The newspapers found that 380 Southern Baptist pastors and other church leaders had been accused of sexually abusing more than 700 victims in the past 20 years.

He told members of the committee and other leaders that Southern Baptists had to hold themselves accountable for mishandling claims of abuse and making it easy for abuse to be covered up.

Individual Baptists who “aided or abetted” abuse must repent, he said, “but as a convention, we need to repent of a culture that has made abuse, cover-ups, and evading accountability far too easy.”

Southern Baptist Convention President J.D. Greear speaks to the denomination’s Executive Committee on Feb. 18, 2019, in Nashville, Tenn. Just days after a newspaper investigation revealed hundreds of sexual abuse cases by Southern Baptist ministers and lay leaders over the past two decades, Greear spoke about plans to address the problem. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)

Greear, who is the pastor of The Summit Church in Durham, N.C., also called on Southern Baptists to repent for failing to listen to victims, for being slow to call law enforcement and for offering easy forgiveness to abusers.

He said that Baptists in the past have viewed abuse as a “Catholic problem” or a “corrupt Hollywood” problem — and not a problem that affected Baptist churches.

In some cases, Greear said, churches have “directly acted in a manner that was negligent at best and malicious at worst,” and he called their actions unacceptable. He said the convention should investigate whether those churches have violated the SBC’s “Baptist Faith and Message” statement, which states that churches should care for the abused.

Among the churches named by Greear were Second Baptist, which claims more than 20,000 in average attendance according to Outreach magazine, and Sovereign Grace Church in Louisville, Ky. , led by C.J. Mahaney, a controversial pastor popular in Calvinist circles.

“We need to be honest with ourselves,” he said. “If news stories had listed a number of our churches who were alleged to have changed their position on homosexuality, or performed gay weddings or adopted odious racial policies, we would rightly begin to ask questions and potentially take steps to cease cooperation, because our position on this issue is clear,” he said. “We must take seriously that our position on abuse is clear too.”

Baptist churches, he said, also need to change their standards for ordination, noting that some churches often fail to perform background checks or properly screen prospective pastors. Southern Baptist churches are all autonomous and ordain their own clergy on the local level.

“Ordaining a pastor is serious business — and it should be — and our ordination councils should not come with rubber stamps,” he said. “Why is it that our background check and screening process is often more rigorous for people working in children’s ministry than people being ordained?”

A committee appointed by Greear, which includes Rachael Denhollander, an attorney and abuse survivor whose testimony helped convict former USA Gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassar of abuse, developed an initial list of 10 recommendations for responding to and preventing abuse in the SBC. The group also helped develop a training program called “Becoming a Church that Cares Well for the Abused,” to be used by churches and other Baptist institutions, including seminaries.

Greear said the training program will be released by June and said all the convention’s seminaries had signed on to make it mandatory for all students.

The committee is considering other recommendations, including creating a national database of known abusers. In the past, the SBC has rejected the idea of a database.

Before Greear spoke, Mike Stone, chairman of the Executive Committee, told his fellow Baptists that they needed to take action to address the issue of abuse. He began the meeting by showing a photo of himself as a young boy and sharing that he had been abused as a child.

“That boy needs you to take the next steps in confronting this evil,” he said, according to The Associated Press. “He’s asking you to take bigger and bolder steps than you’ve ever taken in the past.”

Russell Moore, president of the SBC’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, praised the committee’s recommendations.

“The recent reports in the Houston Chronicle detailing sexual abuse in Southern Baptist churches are both horrifying and demand immediate and swift action,” said Moore in a statement. “Over the last several months the advisory group appointed by SBC President J. D. Greear has been working with an unprecedented breadth of expertise and vigor of spirit.”

“The recommendations he brought this evening are a needed advance, and I pray that they will be universally adopted across the spectrum of Southern Baptist life,” he said.

Implementing the committee’s recommendations will take time and cooperation, said Amy Whitfield, who has served as an assistant parliamentarian for the SBC’s annual meeting.

“Polity is always an issue,” she said in a news conference after Greear’s comments.

After a review by the Executive Committee, most of his committee’s recommendations would have to be approved at the convention’s annual meeting, to be held this June in Birmingham, Ala. Since all Southern Baptist churches are autonomous, each congregation would have to decide on its own whether or not to adopt the recommendations on the local level.

“In order to accomplish a lot of these things, everyone has to come together and play a role,” Whitfield said.

Moore said Southern Baptists currently have no way to share information about pastors and volunteers who have been accused of abuse. Because of that, an alleged abuser can move from church to church to find new victims, he said. Both Moore and Greear said they were open to the idea of creating a database of abusers. The most important thing, they said, is finding a solution that works and allows churches to effectively communicate.

“Everything is on the table,” Moore said.

In his comments to the Executive Committee, Greear did not mention two major Baptist figures who were featured in the investigation by the Texas newspapers: former Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary President Paige Patterson and retired Texas Judge Paul Pressler.

Both were key leaders of the Southern Baptist “Conservative Resurgence” that ultimately prevailed during a decades-long struggle between conservative and moderates over control of the convention. Patterson was fired from Southwestern last year after allegations that he had covered up abuse and made comments that were disrespectful to women. Pressler was accused in a lawsuit of allegedly abusing several men. The claims of abuse were dismissed after a judge ruled that the statute of limitations had expired for the alleged abuse.

The suit also claimed that the SBC had covered up alleged abuse by Pressler. Both Patterson and Pressler have denied the allegations against them.

Asked about Pressler, Greear and Moore said they were disturbed about the allegations against him and said that allegations against Pressler should be investigated by the legal system.

“Every one of these allegations needs to be taken seriously, needs to be investigated fully,” said Moore.

When asked if the convention should investigate claims that the SBC covered up alleged misconduct by Pressler, Greear was open to the possibility. He pointed out that Southern Baptists took action against Patterson, who had been a mentor of his. That signals an openness to investigating powerful figures like Pressler.

“I believe the convention is willing to go there,” said Greear.

Moore also said he believes the convention should remove any church — even one as large as Second Baptist — if that church covered up abuse and refused to admit it had done anything wrong or to change its ways.

“If any church were ultimately found to be defending the cover-up of sexual abuse with no repentance and plan of action for change, then I would vigorously support the disfellowshipping of that church,” he said. “And I am confident that our SBC president and SBC entity leaders would as well.”

I wish there was a chance that these churches would reconcile their doctrinal and pastoral messages to the same kind of “reality” that they are suddenly seeking to protect themselves from image damage when sex abuse scandals are permitted. Being less than honest with people about who wrote the Bible and what it actually is constitutes a form of miseducation which leads to civic abuse of whole societies, after all.

The ordination of “preachers” by the SBC is akin to handing out candy on Halloween. My brother, a so called SBC preacher, is nothing but a fraud as he also calls himself “Dr” as he has a scrap of paper from a diploma mill which he bought after failing to complete at least three doctoral programs. That type of action decreases the value of my earned doctorate and those of others which were earned legitimately. In mainstream churches this behavior would result in his being defrocked as his claim is nothing but a bald faced lie.

If they were “unaware” of these allegations, then their ignorance is culpable. They didn’t have to wait for reports by the mainstream media, or to conduct any “inquisitions”. Criminal convictions are a matter of public record, and bloggers have been shouting stories like these from the housetops for years now. Victims and their advocates have demanded and pleaded on social media with the SBC’s bigwigs to listen and take action — only to be vilified, mocked, derided, or simply ignored.

Since these so-called “leaders” have ignored the cries of wounded sheep, they have no business pleading ignorance, and very little credibility as “shepherds”.

“How does one even become an ordained minister in the SBC? To start, one does not become an ordained minister through the SBC. Unlike the Roman Catholic Church, the SBC credentials no one; it licenses no preacher. Ordination as a Southern Baptist minister, rather, flows from the local church—a local congregation assumes the responsibility of ordination.” –Albert Mohler

The SBC will apparently consider if they want to become a central source of credentials and licenses for individuals. Then they have to decide if they want to require doctoral degrees for leaders of local churches and if a particular degree is good enough. It is their choice, but currently the SBC doesn’t ordain or credential anyone.

That said, some background checks are clearly in order, and in my opinion should be legally required by the state for all individuals working with children in secular or religious schools.

“But Roman Catholics and Southern Baptists have something else in common. Each are controlled by all-male leadership and power structures that exclude women from decision-making and oversight. Only men can be Roman Catholic priests and bishops. And only men can be Southern Baptist pastors. It should not be surprising then that men dominate the oversight processes which could demand accountability and honesty.”

~ Curtis Freeman, research professor of theology and director of the Baptist House of Studies, Duke University Divinity School, “All-male clergy deserves scrutiny in Southern Baptist abuse scandal”

The police have investigative powers and should be made aware of suspected criminal activity so they can investigate and, if necessary, prosecute. The local church board should also be formally informed of suspicious activity or scandalous backgrounds.

The SBC potentially opens itself to liability if it publishes lists of pastors (or “approved” pastors) without posting some caveats about the list, its source, and what it means. In other words, it depends on what is expected from the list. The organists guild, for example, is not expected to do background checks (musical or moral) on church or secular organists.

The SBC should be commended for the steps they are taking. Likewise, the Catholic Church has taken commendable steps, e.g. the Dallas Charter.

It would make an interesting case if limited to criminal background checks on people working with children in an institutional setting and applied equally to secular and religious settings. I don’t know of any Australian church that has objected or found it to interfere with their teaching. In fact, it helps protect churches from liability and children from abuse.

The TSA in the USA does pretty invasive screening all the time without a warrant or even reason to suspect criminal intent, the 4th Amendment not withstanding.

The TSA in the USA does not need a warrant or suspect criminal intent because an American citizen does not have a right to board an airplane as a commercial passenger. The passenger agrees to screening and search as a condition of boarding the plane.

Now if the TSA showed up at a passenger’s home the day before the flight and tried to conduct a search that would be an entirely different matter.

An American citizen has a right to religious beliefs and practice, so a criminal background check requirement as a condition (effectively a license) to be a minister, rabbi, imam, priest, or Sunday School teacher wouldn’t get out of the starting gate.

It can’t apply equally to secular and religious settings because there are no secular settings for ministers, rabbis, imams, priests, or Sunday School teachers.

“Manly” men? If they’re so “manly”, why has it taken public exposés in mainstream newspapers for them to even make a show of standing up to criminal and abusive behaviour committed against their most vulnerable members?

What was Paige Patterson doing when dozens of women and girls were accusing his protogé Darrell Gilyard of sexual improprieties? Covering for him and helping him move from church to church, that’s what. And the great “intellectual” Al Mohler, where was he when victims of sexual abuse in SGM protested against C.J. Mahaney’s participation at T4G in 2016? Mohler was right on stage, introducing Mahaney (under the SBC umbrella by that time) with a heartless, mean-spirited joke at their expense.

I say this as a man myself: if these two are examples of Christian “manliness”, then I want nothing to do with it.

There would be no reason for the Convention to be doing searches for records on members of congregations.

Why not? They’ve shown no hesitation in ousting any congregation that hires a female minister, or takes a different stance on sexual minorities. Why couldn’t they investigate and excommunicate a church that refuses to obey the laws of the land, or protect its weakest members?

Blogging and social media are not means of communicating with the central apparatus of any governmental, religious, or business enterprise.

Oh, I see. But publishing articles in widely-read newspapers is the proper way to communicate with these churches and groups. Or at least seems to be the only way to make them sit up and take notice.

Look up “congregational” and then “hierarchical” and the reason should be clear.

The SBC requires that congregations which associate adhere to the the Baptist Faith and Message. However, it does not conduct search and destroy missions from headquarters to investigate each and every congregation.

The heading of a congregation by a female and same sex physical congress are specifically prohibited by Scripture.

The SBC stance on “sexual minorities” is that like anyone with an inclination to sinful behavior – e.g., kleptomaniacs – they are called to avoid sin.

As the son of a Southern Baptist pastor who was president of the SBC, Jonathan Merritt knows the Southern Baptist world inside out — this “loose-polity” church acts with alacrity when it wants to act:

“It’s correct that Southern Baptist churches are autonomous, unlike Catholic churches, are not under the authority of a hierarchy. And yet, claims that the denomination’s hands are tied in this matter will come as a shock to the many churches that have been censored or kicked out of the denomination due to their acceptance of LGBT people, ordination of women, or more progressive interpretations of the Bible.”

You don’t have to muck around in the internal affairs of a congregation to conclude a congregation is teaching that same sex physical congress is A-OK (apparently what the euphemism “acceptance of LGBT people” was intended to convery), is ordaining women, or has adopted eccentric readings of the Scriptures.

That Jonathan Merritt purports that these things are the same as mucking about in the congregation indicates that either he is not very bright or he is not very honest.

I’ve never been Southern Baptist, Mark. I’m not an American, for that matter. But no matter where I’m from or where I live, I will never donate a single red cent to the cult of arrogant, heartless, misogynistic, power-hungry, Calvin-worshipping men that the SBC has become.

The heading of a congregation by a female and same sex physical congress are specifically prohibited by Scripture.

Oh, but having a registered sex offender in the pulpit or taking care of children is just A-OK with God. Is that it?

The SBC stance on “sexual minorities” is that like anyone with an inclination to sinful behavior – e.g., kleptomaniacs – they are called to avoid sin.

Does that include criminal perverts who rape little kids? If not, why not?

And I’ll ask you again: If the leaders in the SBC are finally willing to act in response to a series of newspaper articles, then why haven’t they acted before now, when the exact same stories have been published by bloggers, by advocacy groups, and by survivors themselves for years?

““We need to be honest with ourselves,” he said. “If news stories had listed a number of our churches who were alleged to have changed their position on homosexuality, or performed gay weddings or adopted odious racial policies, we would rightly begin to ask questions and potentially take steps to cease cooperation, because our position on this issue is clear,” he said. “We must take seriously that our position on abuse is clear too.”

What a nice man he is! Conflating SEXUAL ABUSE BY MEN OF GOD with treating gay people decently, or with my life affirming marriage. Why no mention of baptist divorce? Gay people get condemned, heterosexuals get winked at, with perhaps a stern finger wagging. And IMPOTUS gets voted for. And The Wimmens is still second class citizens in Baptistdom. Nope. Nothing odious there.

But wait! there’s more! ODIOUS RACIAL POLICIES. The church that was founded on people owning other people of the wrong race. The church that defended segregation. The “church” that waited 130 years after its founding to apologize for what it was founded on.

You,re not honest with yourself, dearie, you’re playing to your base. And base it truly is.

“Oh, but having a registered sex offender in the pulpit or taking care of children is just A-OK with God. Is that it?”

No.

Nor did I write that, as you well know.

Reading you for awhile, noting your British spellings (e.g., “offence”) but your upper Midwestern American idiom, I take it you’re Canadian. Keep going and I’ll zero in on where in Canada.

The Southern Baptist Convention doesn’t have congregations in Canada, so I am not sure what you’re up to.

“Does that include criminal perverts who rape little kids? If not, why not?”

The SBC stance on “sexual minorities”, which apparently is a euphemism for those who want to engage in something other than male-female marriage while bumping uglies, is that like anyone with an inclination to sinful behavior – e.g., kleptomaniacs – is called to avoid sin, as I previously wrote.

“And I’ll ask you again: If the leaders in the SBC are finally willing to act in response to a series of newspaper articles, then why haven’t they acted before now, when the exact same stories have been published by bloggers, by advocacy groups, and by survivors themselves for years?”

And the answer remains the same as you were given once before.

My working hypothesis, btw, is that you’re in one of the LGBT minority “persuasions” – very little else would get a Canadian’s (unless, of course, you’re simply in need of mental health intervention) knickers in this much of a twist over something that could not possibly have the slightest personal impact, eh?

The twin are like the endings of Revelation chapters two and three looking at each other. If they heed to Jesus’ free gift of righteousness, they would not have fornicated with Jezebel overtly (the first) or their own flesh (the last) covertly.

Seriously, Mark, why do you keep mentioning “kleptomaniacs”? This article isn’t even about them — it’s about criminals who rape and molest kids, and who are then welcomed into positions in Baptist churches where they have access to future victims. “Calling on them to avoid sin” is pointless — to keep them from committing felonies against children, they have to be kept away from children, and watched constantly. Not placed in positions of trust.

And the answer remains the same as you were given once before.

Except that you didn’t answer my question. All that you said previously was that “blogging and social media are not means of communicating with the central apparatus of any … enterprise.” That doesn’t explain why the SBC would suddenly be oh-so-attentive to the same information when it comes from two Texas newspapers. All the stories featured in the Houston Chronicle have been circulated for years by bloggers and advocacy groups, and even other newspapers. Some stories have been publicly available for over a decade. I can’t accept that the likes of Greear, Mohler and other so-called “leaders” in the SBC have been incapable of learning about these cases until now.

As for your deductions: You’re quite correct that I’m from Canada, though I live overseas now. Everything else you surmised about me is 100% wrong. I’ve been a Christian for decades now, and I’m about as hetero-straight as a man can be.

Why is it so strange to you that I’m concerned about these stories? Do I have to be American to want for children to be safe in churches? Are only Southern Baptists allowed to be outraged that minors have been raped, molested, belittled, shamed and then ignored, and all in Jesus’ Name?

I take it personally when anything calling itself a “church” dishonours my Lord by treating children with contempt. And I won’t hesitate to call out self-proclaimed “leaders” when I think they’re being dishonest, and fail to lead.

“That doesn’t explain why the SBC would suddenly be oh-so-attentive to the same information when it comes from two Texas newspapers.”

Of course it does. Stories are not investigations.

If churches went around acting on “stories”, they’d have no time to do anything else.

“I can’t accept that the likes of Greear, Mohler and other so-called ‘leaders’ in the SBC have been incapable of learning about these cases until now.”

Then don’t accept it.

Your non-acceptance will have zero impact on whether it is true or not.

“As for your deductions: You’re quite correct that I’m from Canada, though I live overseas now. Everything else you surmised about me is 100% wrong. I’ve been a Christian for decades now, and I’m about as hetero-straight as a man can be.”

And yet you had the chutzpah to declare you would never contribute to the SBC, as though that meant something.

You don’t have a say in the matter or a dog in the hunt.

I am sure the SBC will consider the matter and make a decision.

And I am sure they will do so unaware of your opinions and just as well off for that fact.

How do you know that blog authors haven’t been carrying out proper investigations? Many of them, especially the owners of The Wartburg Watch and Julie Anne Smith of Spiritual Sounding Board, really know their stuff. They do their homework and call around for verification before publishing anything. If you doubt that, then ask yourself this: How often have they been wrong? And when have they ever been successfully sued for libel or defamation?

If churches went around acting on “stories”, they’d have no time to do anything else.

You mean, there are so many reports of sex abuse in Southern Baptist congregations that acting on them would consume all these churches’ resources? That’s hardly a selling point, Mark.

And considering that these reports are coming from their own members first and foremost, the pastors and elders had better be acting on them. They have no business calling themselves shepherds if all they do is ignore wounded sheep. The fact that many churches have ignored such stories is the reason why they’ve been called out in the newspapers.

If they did in fact respond appropriately to all claims of rape and molestation, it’s true that they might have less time for expanded building projects, or for buying that new fog machine. But they’d have a much better chance of catching and dealing with predators before they cause too much harm. Isn’t that what’s important?

You don’t have a say in the matter or a dog in the hunt.

Wrong. The men at the very tippy-top of the SBC, and the pastors of mega-churches, set themselves up as public figures and behave as though they were spokesmen for all Christians (including me), not just for their own church or denomination. And in that capacity, they’ve frequently made all of us believers look like fools, and Jesus look like a fraud.

Patterson and Mohler have been among the worst. I’m especially reminded of T4G of 2016, where C.J. Mahaney was welcomed as a speaker with open arms, in spite of the fact that he’s been credibly accused of covering up the sexual abuse of children in SGM. And how did Mohler introduce this man? With a revolting, insulting, heartless, mean-spirited joke at the expense of these victims of sexual crimes. How do think that sounded in their ears, or made Jesus look to a watching world?

As long as men like these keep claiming to speak for all Christians, I will continue to make clear that they do not speak for me. And I won’t let anyone silence me.